Door operator



April 1941,

v. J. HADDAWAY DOOR OP ATOR Filed Nov. 30, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet l a ulln irplq hiy'. gwlllm April 8, 1941. v ,J HADDAWAY 2,237,987

DOOR OPERATOR Filed NOV. 30, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 8, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFECE DOOR OPERATOR Vaden Jones Haddaway, Woodlawn, Md. Application November 30, 1939, Serial No. 306,979

5 Claims.

This invention relates to doors, particularly to auxiliary doors or conveyor track doors operated by the movement of an adjacent main door.

Track doors or auxiliary doors are usually found in refrigerating rooms for the storage and handling of butchered livestock and formerly have proven unsatisfactory because they are not only inherently complicated but in their open position they extend out into the room and occupy valuable track and storage space. Furthermore, they are difiicult to install or impossible to apply to existing installations, and are not interchangeable for use with a right-hand or left-hand room door.

One of the important objects of this invention is to provide improved and simplified auxiliary doors that may be quickly and easily applied to any existing installation. Another object is: to provide a door operating mechanism that will require a minimum amount of space. A further object is to provide a door operator that will permit the full opening of the auxiliary doors with a minimum opening of the room door. An additional object is to provide improved track doors that may be used with either a right-hand or left-hand room door. Equally important objects will more plainly appear from the detail speoification and drawings presented herewith in exemplification but not in limitation of the present invention.

Like reference characters designate like parts shown in Fig. 1 in their closed position, together with a cutaway portion of the upper edge of the room door in its closed position,

Fig. 3, a horizontal cross sectional view of the doors shown in Fig. 2, the dotted lines indicating the doors in a partially open position.

Fig. 4, a vertical cross sectional view taken on the center line of the room door in its closed position.

Fig. 5, a horizontal cross sectional view of the modified dloors shown in Fig. 6, the dotted lines 0 indicating the doors in a partially open position. Fig. 6, a vertical elevation of the modified track doors shown in Fig. 5 in their closed position.

Fig. 7, a further modification of the track door assembly shown in Fig. 1.

In this modification the double track doors are replaced by a single track door.

This invention comprises two primary operating elements, first an arcuate groove 20 that may be simply and quickly cut in the top of any cooling room door, and second a downwardly propecting pin 2| located in the lower outer corner of each of the vertically hinged auxiliary or track doors. A preferred embodiment of this invention is shown in Fig. 1. In this embodiment the insulated wall of a cooling room II] is provided with an opening II to admit the conveyor track [2. The usual roller trolley l3 runs on the track l2 to pass through the opening I l. A pair of opposed insulated wing doors l4 adapted to close the opening H, are vertically hinged to the wall l0 by hinges I5 preferably provided with spring means [6 which urge the doors I4 into their outward position. Their outward movement may preferably be limited by means of stops I"! ooacting with the hinges l5. The wall In of the cooling room is provided with the usual entrance 2 adapted to be closed by an insulated room door These room doors are usually from four inches to ten inches in thickness. This provides an upper surface to the room door of sufiicient width to permit the application thereto of the arcuate groove 20 adapted to engage the downwardly projecting pins 2| located in the doors M.

The doors M are preferably provided with sloping cutout portions 22. These portions 22 as well as the periphery of the doors l4 are covered with the usual gasket material such as sponge rubber in order to provide an efficient seal for the refrigcrating room. The sloping covered portions 22 also act to provide a pressure seal around the track l2 when the doors M are in their closed position.

In order to apply my improved doors to an existing installation, it is preferably only necessary to install the spring hing-es IS, the stops l6 and the pins 2| previously described, and finally to provide the top of the room door l9 with the arcuate groove 2!]. This may readily be inscribed and cut in a very few minutes by means of a milling cutter and electric drill, and is made of sufficient width to permit the pins 2|, to freely slide therein,

The groove 26 may preferably be provided with outwardly flared openings 24 as shown in Fig. 1 to facilitate the engagement of the pins 2| as they enter the groove 20. If desired, the groove 20 may have its sides lined with metal or other durable material to prevent the pins 2| from wearing out the walls of the groove 20. It is also preferable to provide the groove 20 with a centrally fixed lubricating reservoir 23 which may take the form of a felt pad saturated with lubricant. This will supply the pins 2| with lubrication whenever they are in their closed position as is shown in Fig. 2 as they are then pressed in contact with the lubricator 23.

In operation as the room door i9 is partially opened as shown in Fig. 3, the outward movement of the door l9 will cause the pins 2| to travel toward the respective outer ends of the groove 20. When the door I9 is further swung open, the groove 20 is entirely disengaged from the pins 2| as shown in Fig. 1. At this point inasmuch as the doors M are being urged outwardly by means of the spring I6, they come to rest against the stop I! as shown in Fig. 1 and are held thereby in the proper positions so that the pins 2lwill reengage the flared portions 24 and enter the slots 20 upon the return of the door to its closed position. Springs l6 and the stops I! are included to prevent the doors M from fouling the trolley l3 by becoming accidentally closed or prematurely moved partially into their closed position. The purpose of the flared openings 24 for the groove 20 is to insure proper engagement of the pins 2| therewith at all times and to compensate for any variations in the hanging position of the room door.

A modified embodiment of this invention is shown in Fig. '7 wherein a single door is provided in place of the pair of winged doors shownin Fig.1. In this modification the conveyor tracks l2 are placed at the edge of the opening ll instead of being positioned between the two doors, shown in Fig. 1. In this embodiment the single door 25 operates in exactly the same manner as either one of the doors l4 shown in Fig. 1 and previously described herein. In this embodiment the groove 26 need only be half the length of the groove 20, inasmuch as it has only one door to operate. In other words, instead of being approximately 180 degrees as shown in Fig. 1, groove 26 shown in Fig. '7 need only be approximately 90 degrees in extent.

A further modification of the present invention appears in the embodiment in Fig. 6, which shows a front elevation of the doors in their closed position as well as a fragmentary portion of the cooling room wall [0 and of the cooling room door l9, together with a cutaway view of a portion of the door |9 showing the pins 2| and the groove 20.

A horizontal cross sectional view of the modiwhich are identical in function with the stops I! described in Fig. 1. The plates 29 and 3|] are connected by the link plate 3| and together form the link action hinges 28. The track doors 21 are provided with pins 2| projecting downwardly from the underside of their lower outer corners similar to those described in Fig. 1. The room door I9 is also provided with the groove 20 as previously described. The upper end portions of the track doors 21 are preferably provided with a laterally coextensive aperture or guideway 32 through which is inserted the guide rod 33 carried by the track doors 2"! and held in position therein by means of the pins 34 as shown in Fi 6.

In operation the link hinges 28 coasting with the groove 20 and the pins 2| permit the doors to have an initial radial outward movement which disengages the compression seal at 22 around the track l2. After the doors have radially opened to this point, the link hinges 28 cause 21 to slide away from each other in a plane parallel to the room wall ID. The guideway 32 is of sufficient size to provide the guide 33 with sufficient play therein to permit the slight initial radial movement of the doors 21 just described. Thereafter the guide 33 slides in the guideway 32 so that the doors 21 are kept in approximate alignment with each other and in a plane approximately parallel with the wall I0 as they are moved outwardly to their open position shown in Fig. 5 by the sliding action of the pins 2| in the groove 20. It will thus be seen that the purpose of this modification is to further decrease the distance of the doors 2! from the wall lil when the doors 21 are in their fully open position and thereby further conserve valuable storage and track space in the upper part of the storage room. It is also apparent that this mechanism permits the track doors to be fully opened while the room door is opened only a minimum amount necessary to look into the room or to permit entrance into the room by an attendant. This embodiment permits an efiective minimum opening of as little as 5 degrees. It will be seen that this modification not only conserves space but also conserves refrigeration by permitting the suspension of conveyor tracks or track switches in a position that will serve the storage room when the room door is open only the minimum distance necessary to admit the article to be stored. To a somewhat less degree this is also true of the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 and 7, which permit an effective minimum opening of the room door of approximately 30 degrees.

In the present invention the configuration of the arcuate groove depends upon the thickness of the room door. In installations where the room door is only slightly greater than the width of an auxiliary door, the arcuate groove may take the approximate form of an arc of a circle whose radius approximately equals the swinging radius of the pins 2|. When the thickness of the room door is materially greater than the width of the auxiliary door, it is preferred to have the arcuate groove assume the approximate form of a portion of an ellipse proportioned in accord with the thickness of the room door and the swinging radius of the pins 2|. It is, therefore, clear that in any embodiment of the present invention that as soon as the dimensions of the room door and auxiliary doors are known, the definite configuration of the arcuate groove may be readily determined by well known mathematical methods.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination a vertically hinged main door for a storage room, an auxiliary door adjacent one end of said main door, said auxiliary door including vertically disposed hinged means, means adapted to normally hold said auxiliary door in an open position, means for limiting the extent of said open position, projecting means secured adjacent the outer lower edge of said auxiliary door and extending adjacent said main door, means for operating said auxiliary door comprising an arcuate groove so formed and positioned in the edge surface of said end of said main door that it will engage said projecting means in a manner whereby the travel of said projecting means in said groove during the operation of said main door will concurrently operate said auxiliary door.

2. In combination a vertically hinged main door for a storage room, an auxiliary door adjacent one end of said main door, said auxiliary door including vertically disposed hinged means adapted to normally hold said door in an open position, said hinged means including means for limiting the extent of said open position, projecting means secured adjacent the outer lower edge of said auxiliary door and extending adjacent said main door, means for operating said auxiliary door comprising an arcuate groove so for-med and positioned in the edge surface of said end of said main door that it will engage said projecting means in a manner whereby the travel of said projecting means in said groove during the operation of said main door will concurrently operate said auxiliary door.

:3. In combination a vertically hinged main door for a storage room, a pair of auxiliary wing doors adjacent one end of said main door, said auxiliary doors including vertically disposed hinged means adapted to normally hold said auxiliary doors in an open position, said hinged means including means for limiting the extent of said open position, projecting means secured adjacent the outer lower edge of each of said auxiliary doors and extending adjacent said main door, means for concurrently operating said pair of auxiliary doors comprising an arcuate groove so formed and positioned in the edge surface of said end of said main door that it will engage said projecting means in the manner whereby the travel of said projecting means in said groove during the operation of said main door will concurrently operate said auxiliary door.

4. The combination of claim 1 wherein the initial opening of said main door through an arc of approximately 30 in extent, and the subsequent reclosing of said main door through said arc, will completely open and completely close said auxiliary door.

5. The combination of claim 2, wherein said hinged means for said auxiliary door includes link means adapted to impart an initial radial movement to said auxiliary door and a subsequent rearwardly sliding movement thereto, whereby an initial opening of said main door through an arc of approximately 5 in extent and the subsequent reclosing of said main door will completely open and close said auxiliary door.

VADEN JONES HADDAWAY. 

